Court orders activist released

INDIA’S Supreme Court Monday ordered the release of a leading human rights activist held on charges of colluding with outlawed Maoist insurgents.
Judges said Binayak Sen must be released on bail from the jail in Chhattisgarh state where he has been imprisoned since his arrest in May 2007.

The court’s ruling came a year after 2,000 rights activists, doctors and authors, including American writer Noam Chomsky, petitioned the Indian government for Sen’s release.

Sen, a paediatrician by profession, denies all charges that he was linked to the Maoist guerrillas who control parts of Chhattisgarh.

The state’s chief minister, Raman Singh, said he would comply with the court’s orders.

Sen, 59, is a public health expert and also a senior member of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, a respected Indian human rights group.

He was working with poor people in Chhattisgarh when he was arrested.

India’s Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and landless farmers. — AFP

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